


Breaking and Entering

by youngavengerfeels



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Robbery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-14
Updated: 2016-09-14
Packaged: 2018-08-15 00:15:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8034550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youngavengerfeels/pseuds/youngavengerfeels
Summary: Steve just wants to sleep. So coming home to someone clearly trying to rob him his not his idea of a good time.





	Breaking and Entering

**Author's Note:**

> I saw a tumblr post with this premiss and I knew I had to write it for Stucky. This is my first Stucky fic and I wrote it all at an unreasonably late hour, but here you go.

Steve was ready to crawl into bed and sleep for the next week. Well he was ready to crawl into what he called a bed. He couldn’t actually afford a mattress let alone a bed frame, but he found some decent couch cushions on an old couch someone had pushed out to the curb. He would have taken the whole couch, but there was no way he would have been able to transport a whole couch all the way out to his shithole of an apartment. The cushions were lumpy, but it was infinitely better than when he was sleeping with only a blanket between him and the floor. 

The bus ride from the university to Steve’s apartment was long, but the further away from the university Steve had looked the cheaper the rent. Even to be able to afford the crappiest apartment he could find Steve had to work two part time jobs on top of his classes. He worked in the mornings before his classes as a barista in the coffee shop in the engineering building. After classes he worked in the Health and Recreation center as a janitor. He didn’t mind the work, but hated the way people working out looked at him while he cleaned. He knew he didn’t look like he belonged working in the gym being about the size of a very long twig, but a paycheck was a paycheck. 

The threat of falling asleep on his feet was strong and only the jostling of the bus kept Steve awake. He hadn’t slept last night because he was working on a project for his painting class. Even though he was dead on his feet Steve had been the first person to offer his seat to an elderly woman who boarded the bus on the stop after he had gotten on. The siren call of his couch cushion bed was calling, so when the bus finally pulled up to his stop he almost cried from relief. The one benefit of his living situation was that the bus stop was only two minute walk from his apartment. The was a true blessing when he would be riding the last bus after working a late shift of spending too much time in one of the art studios. 

When Steve stumbled to his door he found it unlocked. He knew he had locked it when he had left for his morning shift at the coffee shop in the engineering building. His breath hitched as he started to panic. Someone had broken into his apartment. There wasn’t much of value in his apartment other than his art supplies, which if those had been stolen there was no way he could afford to replace them. Without his supplies there was no way he could finish any of the projects for class that were due soon. His only hope was that whoever broke into his apartment had just thought they were worthless like the rest of his stuff.  

He couldn’t hear any noise coming from inside the apartment and he was too tired to worry about safety so Steve just pushed the door opened ready for the worst. A quick span of the single room showed nothing missing but a man was sitting on the wobbly stool he had pulled out of the dumpster. Steve froze in the doorway unsure of what to do. He severely doubted that even if he screamed his neighbors would do more than bang on his wall. 

“You live here?’ the man asked. Steve nodded. “How do you live like this?’ the man asked gesturing to the apartment. There wasn’t much to look at. It was a studio apartment with a barely there kitchen. The paint on the walls was peeling and there was definitely mold on the ceiling which did nothing to help Steve’s asthma. Steve’s ‘bed’ was a corner of the room, the only other furniture being the stool the man was sitting on and a milk crate Steve used as a table. His art supplies were scattered around the room still a mess from Steve running out of the apartment this morning when he realized he had accidently worked through the night and was going to be late for work. 

Steve felt himself bristle, embarrassment and anger replace the tiredness. “Where do you get off judging me when you are the one breaking into my apartment? Sorry I don’t have anything worth your time,” Steve said bitterly.

The man held up his hands in a sign of appeasement and Steve couldn’t help but examine the man. He was broad to the point where it bordered on being chunky but it was a good look on the man, it made him look strong. Based on the long legs Steve was guessing the man was tall, but it was his face that interested Steve the most. He had bright blue eyes that reminded Steve of ice and a strong jaw. Hie had long brown hair the framed his face making a nice picture. If the situation was different Steve would be aching to draw the man. 

“I’m just worried about you man. There is nothing in here except paint and colored pencils. You don’t even had any food in your kitchen,” the man said. Steve could hear the concern in the man’s voice which only confused Steve. Why would a burglar care about how Steve lived? 

“That’s not true, I have a couple of slices of bread,” Steve countered not sure why he felt the need to correct the man who was now giving him a look of pity.He wasn’t sure what the man was trying to get by pretending to care about Steve which made Steve leary. 

“That bread is covered in mold and you should definitely not eat it,” the man said with more concern than Steve thought was necessary. He knew the bread was bad and wasn’t actually planning on eating it, he just hadn’t had time to throw it out or go grocery shopping. 

“Why do you even care? You were clearly planning on robbing me if I had anything worth taking anyway,” Steve said the adrenaline of the situation wearing off leaving him more tired than he was when he stumbled up to his door in the first place. He was pretty sure the stranger wasn’t going to hurt him so Steve fully entered the apartment closing the door behind him. He barely made it to his bed before collapsing. Normally he would be ashamed of showing how tired and weak he was feeling but Steve didn’t really feel the need to try and impress a burglar. 

“I have seen some shitty apartments in my day, but this is the saddest one I have ever seen. I just wanted to make sure you are ok,” the man said with such conviction that Steve actually started believing him for a moment. “I’m Bucky by the way,” Bucky said with a smile. Steve thought it was unfair how attractive Bucky was considering he apparently went around robbing empty apartments. 

“I don’t know what you expected to find in a complex like this,” Steve said. Bucky shrugged. 

“It’s hit or miss, but people seem to be less willing to notice me in a place like this,” Bucky explained. Steve grunted in agreement. He knew his neighbors couldn’t care less what happened to him. 

“If you are done judging me can you leave, I am so incredibly tired and I have to be at work by 4:45am to open up,” Steve said praying Bucky will just leave him alone. 

“Nah, I would rather get to know you,” Bucky said making to move to vacate the stool. 

Steve sighed resigned to the shithole that was his life. He wondered if he could spin this to get out of the quiz he knew was tomorrow in his museum studies class. It wasn’t that he hadn’t studied, it was more that he definitely hadn’t studied. He had been planning on getting a least a little in tonight, but was too tired after work and now there was the whole Bucky thing going on. 

“You already rooted through all my stuff so I am sure to can guess all the important stuff,” Steve said.

“Well I know you’re an artist based on the ridiculous amount of art supplies. Which by the way you are really good,” Bucky said making Steve blush. He knew he was good, he wouldn’t be putting this much effort into becoming an artist if he wasn’t but it was still nice to hear it from someone who looked like Bucky. Before Steve could tell Bucky to shove off Bucky continued.

“I can also tell you are a student based on the graded papers laying around, and I have to say Dr. Lehnsherr seems like a hardass. I wouldn’t take their class next semester if I was you. So you are both a struggling artist and a poor college student a double whammy. You are probably too proud to admit you need help to your friends or family so you are suffering quietly on your own. ” Bucky said. “What I don’t know is your name.” Bucky finished. 

Steve was surprised how much Bucky was able to get on his own. Steve knew it was probably a bad idea to give someone who had tried to rob him his name, but was too tired to think about consequences for his actions at the moment. 

“Steve. Now get the hell out of my apartment,” Steve said already falling asleep, but battled to keep his eyes open. Bucky didn’t really seem like a threat, but he did have enough common sense not to outright fall asleep on the dude. He was actually a little interested in Bucky. Steve wasn't’ ashamed to admit that this was the most interesting thing that had happened in his life recently. 

“You know what you wait right there and I will be back,” Bucky said. 

Before Steve could respond with a resounding, ‘you better not fucking come back or I will call the police,” Bucky was out the door. It was kind of weird how empty his apartment felt now that Bucky was gone. That was probably the most words ever spoken out loud in the apartment. Sure, Steve would  mumble bitterly at paintings and draws that were stressing him out, but they never spoke back unless he was going on 36 hours without sleep. 

Steve didn’t really think Bucky would be back, but he made sure to lock the door anyway just in case. Although apparently his locks were ineffective. He could had the cost of replacing his locks as another expense for the month. He managed to change into his sleeping clothes before collapsing onto his bed and falling asleep. 

He woke up to the sound of something falling. Jerking up from his couch cushions he saw Bucky looking dejectedly at what looked like a microwave. Steve groaned getting Bucky’s attention, who just grinned sheepishly at him. 

“You could have knocked,” Steve said resigned that this was happening to him.

“Nah, it didn’t take long to pick your lock again,” Bucky said nonchalantly, picking up the microwave. 

“That is so reassuring,” Steve mumbled. 

He didn’t bother to get up as he watched Bucky try to find an outlet to plug the microwave into. Steve wished him luck with that. There was no a convenient place outlet in the whole apartment. There was one half way up the wall god’s sake. Who needed to plug something in there? As Steve started to wake up he realized that Bucky was trying to give him a microwave and now that he was awake to notice, he spotted a pile of other stuff by the door. Steve was conflicted. On the one hand he thought it was sweet that Bucky seemed to care so much despite that fact he had only just met Steve. On the other he had tried to rob Steve and that microwave was most likely stolen. 

“I didn’t steal it, I liberated it,” Bucky said with a smile before Steve could even open his mouth. Steve snorted.

“You know if I wanted a microwave I could just do dumpster diving on campus at the end of the semester,” Steve said with a glare. That was true. He could probably get whatever he needed furniture wise from people moving out of the dorms at the end of the year, but instead he rounded up everything he thought was useful from the dumpsters to donate to the homeless shelter. Steve might have it bad, but he could have it so much worse. It always made him so mad how people would just throw away perfectly good things because they were moving. He understood that it could be hard to transfer things from dorm to new apartments or all the way back home for the summer, but he wished people would at least donate them instead of just throwing it all away. 

“So I take it you do not appreciate my effort to help improve your quality of life?” Bucky said with what sounded like disappointment, but Steve was probably just being his normal hopeful and naive self. 

“It does come off as a little creepy, but no actually I don’t appreciate it,” Steve said always one for honestly. Bucky made a face that had Steve worried that he had insulted the other man until Bucky burst out laughed so hard he had to bend over. 

“Can’t a guy help another guy out when he thinks the other guy is hot?” Bucky said with his stupid handsome face. But Steve’s heart jumped when Bucky said he thought he was hot. 

“Or you could just ask a guy out like a normal person,” Steve said eyebrow raised. 

“Would you like to go on a date with me?” Bucky asked.

“Only if you swear everything about the date is legal,” Steve said deadly serious making Bucky laugh. Steve frowned at that. He was being serious. There was no way things would work out between him and Bucky if Bucky was going to try and steal from people. Steve really did not want to have to punch Bucky in his beautiful face, but he would if he had to. He would punch him right in that perfectly sculpted face. 

“If you insist, but I don’t know where the fun in that is,” Bucky said with a smooth smile that did things it had no right to do to Steve’s heart. Even though Steve didn’t know what he was getting himself into he was excited to find out, if nothing else it would be a fun story to tell. 

**Author's Note:**

> I actually have a bunch of Stucky fics in progress so if you like my characterization and what not let me know so I know it is worth continuing those projects.


End file.
